BAHAWALPUR: The police arrested at least 24 people for allegedly tearing pictures of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif during a protest demonstrations and blocking roads, in Bahawalpur city and Dunyapur in Lodhran district on Oct 21, the day the convicted former premier returned to the country from England after four years of self-imposed exile.

As per police sources, on Oct 21 some people gathered in front of a hoarding on a wall carrying pictures of Nawaz Sharif, at Pakora Chowk in Model Town B are of the city.

As a team of Civil Lines police station arrived at the scene, the protesters were raising slogans against Nawaz Sharif and the interim government, blocking some busy roads in the area.

The sources said that on seeing the police, most of the protesters slipped away from the scene, but two teenagers, identified as Ramzan and Zeeshan, continued to raise slogans and block the road.

The police picked both of them and detained them in the Civil Lines police station.

On Wednesday, four days after their detention, the police registered an FIR No 1223, under sections 186, 341, 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and 16 of Maintenance of Public Order (PMO) on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Muhammad Suhail.

The youths have been charged with interfering in the officials’ work, blocking road, creating hurdles in the smooth traffic flow and spreading hatred among the people.

Similarly, according to a Lodhran district police report, 22 persons were booked and arrested in Dunyapur allegedly for tearing away posters of Nawaz Sharif and stealing the iron frames of the hoardings from the venue.

Police sources say Saifullah, Javed, Ghulam Murtaza, Ali Zaib, Waseem, Sajjad, Kanwar Aryan, Tariq and Salman Maseah, along with 12 unidentified persons, after tearing the pictures also took away the iron frames of the hoarding.

Dunyapur police, on the complaint of PML-N’s city vice-president, Mr Khalil, registered a case against the suspects and arrested them.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2023